Vincent Herring - Night and Day (2015)

Vincent Herring, one of the great jazz saxophonists of our time, matches his soulful, expressive playing with one of the baddest trumpet players around, Jeremy Pelt, in a quintet that also features the hard-driving rhythm section of Mike LeDonne, Brandi Disterheft and Joe Farnsworth. It s a group of musicians that Herring knows well and there is an obvious rapport and chemistry from the very first note of the funky bebop opener, 'Grind Hog s Day'. Herring was Cedar Walton s saxophonist for more than 20 years and he remembers him with Walton s Latin-tinged 'Theme for Jobim' and Mike LeDonne s poignant dedication, 'Walton'. Vincent remarks, 'All of us are Cedar s musical children. I wish we could have played this one for him.' There are blistering hard bop anthems, too, like Herring s original 'The Adventures of Hyun Joo Lee' and Donald Byrd s classic 'Fly, Little Bird, Fly'. The full spotlight is on Vincent on a handful of quartet tunes that include 'The Gypsy', which is something of an 'alto saxophone classic' made famous by Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Phil Woods. Herring loves to play this one live and he give it an unforgettably moving reading. The other quartet numbers include Tex Allen s beautiful 'There Is Something About You (I Don t Know)', the bluesy 'Wabash' by Vincent s closest stylistic model and exemplar, Cannonball Adderley, and Cole Porter s jubilant title track 'Night and Day'. Herring also contributes the infectious, closing blues, 'Smoking Paul s Stash'. Vincent Herring is modern jazz at its best unpretentious, smart, and timeless.